REFTEX - A Context-Based Translation Aid

The system presented in this paper produces bilingual passages of text from an original (source) text and one (or more) of its translated versions. The source text passage includes words or word compounds which a translator wants to retrieve for the current translating of another text. The target text passage is the equivalent version of the source text passage. On the basis of a comparison of the contexts of these words in the concorded passage and his own text, the translator has to decide on the utility of the translation proposed in the target text passage. The program might become a component of translator's work bench. I n t r o d u c t i o n Computers can contribute to translation either automatically o r as an aid to the human translator (machine-aided translation). The latter represents a large spectrum of different approaches as to the degree of human intervention in the translation process and to the method(s). Some systems are semi-automatic in the sense that they only ask for human intervention for the resolution of ambiguities (Melby, 1981). Other systems are designed to relieve the human translator of some tedious aspects (such as dictionary look-up) of the translation work, either interactively via a terminal or by batch processing overnight. As to method(s), most systems are based on dictionary look-ups sometimes combined with automatic insertion of the retrieved equivalents (McNaught, Somers, 1979). This paper will describe an alternative method, REFTEX. A major difference between REFTEX and most other machine-aided translation systems that I know of is that REFTEX emphasises the context, whereas other systems rely on bilingual dictionaries containing translations (sometimes uncommented) and possibly definitions or explanatory remarks. The system was first implemented on a CDC mainframe installation, but has now been converted to an IBM XT-microcomputer. The primary scope of the program is to provide a supplemental aid for human translators. The principles of REFTEX The name of the system, REFTEX, is an acronym for reference text. Its main characteristics can be summsrised as follows: The system is meant to be used when the translator comes across some word or word compound that cannot be looked up in a dictionary or the translations of which do not seem relevant in the context of the actual translation. The translator can then have recourse to texts that have already been translated, in order to try to retrieve the wanted word(s) and its/ their translation(s). Such texts exist in an original (source language) version and one or more translated (target language) versions. In REFIEX, such texts are designated reference texts. During execution of the program, the program will access passages (concordances) of the original text that contain the word and the equivalent passages of (one of) the translated versions. The translator will then decide if the translation contained in the target language version is useful in the actual translation. It is an interactive, screen-oriented system that can be used by a transistor during the transIation process. In the present version, the text to be translated and its translation are supposed to exist independently on paper, but nothing prevents the implementation of an integrated version using windows (cf. last section). REFTEX can thus be conceived of as a computerised combination of bilingual concordances used in philology (usually on ancient texts) and the manual use of translated text as an aid for the translator. 8ut in contrast to traditional concordance making, the project does not aim at producing a finished product of the works of an author, but at supplying the translator with an ad hoc tool.